Wednesday, October 4, 2017

Our Son and his lovely Wife moved to San Antonio, so we had them staying with us off and on for several weeks as they were going to job interviews and house hunting. They brought their adorable dogs with them. These doggies kept us laughing with their antics and sweet personalities.

Is this not the sweetest face? Paisley, the Golden Retriever

Tucker, the Shi''itzu and my cat Daisy were keeping an eye on me while I was making dinner.Daisy was less than thrilled about having doggie visitors.

Hubby's Niece welcomed a beautiful, healthy baby boy! Such a wonderful blessing--and opportunity to make a quilt!

More good news from Hubby's family: Another Niece became engaged! So we are looking forward to her December wedding --- and of course that means a quilt needs to be made. ; )

Some weird things have happened this summer.

A section of sub-flooring collapsed on our second floor right in front of our bedroom door. Try explaining that to a rental management company and getting someone to come out and look at it! They didn't believe me at first! The person on the phone kept saying, "Now, Mrs Payne, it is normal for floor to creak." Exasperating!!

The wood core of the metal clad backdoor was rotten and began coming apart in chunks and the door had to be replaced.

Part of the porch roof started to collapse.

A window in the living room began leaking and carpenter ants were discovered to be the culprits. They had been feasting on the window framing for quite some time. (and no, this was completely unrelated to the subfloor collapse or the porch roof, both of those came down to poor construction.)

The air conditioning went out during the 100 degree weather. Oh the joy.....I am so tired of calling the management company to request repairs!!!

Plus, several other small things fell apart. It's been a summer with constant visits from workmen here to fix things. Thankfully, the house seems to be holding itself together for the moment, but I am not going to say that too loudly...

Some not so good things happened this summer.

My husband came down with pneumonia in July and was ill for several weeks.

I am the Queen of Clumsy and managed to take a couple hard falls and sprained, strained, and gloriously bruised various parts of my body.

My lovely Daughter is the Princess of Clumsy and tried hard to take my crown! She also took a couple bad falls where she sprained, strained and gloriously bruised various parts of her body.

We were quite a pair, let me tell you! We'd get together and compare aches and pains and bruise colors.

In August my Husband's mother passed away after a long battle with breast cancer. We got a call on a Sunday morning saying, "Come Now." Two hours later we were in the car heading for Arizona. The drive was amazing: no traffic, no construction zones, no accidents, no bad weather. We arrived in just 14 hours, at about 3 AM. We have never ever made that trip that fast. Hubby did have the chance to spend time with his mother. She passed away later that same day. We stayed in Arizona a couple weeks, and there was an impromptu trip to California to visit other relatives after the funeral. It was a very nice funeral and was wonderful to see all the family members.

This summer has been exhausting and difficult. Somewhere along the way my sewing mojo disappeared. My poor sewing machine quite literally has a coating of dust on it right now. My Finish A Long plans for last quarter went right out the window and I didn't even care. In fact, I think I didn't even enter my sewing room for about a month.

Life seems to be settling down now (oh, how I hope the peace lasts for a while!!), and my mind is starting to turn to creative pursuits again. My sewing machine was dusted today, and I pulled out my FAL list to have a look at it. I've decided it needs big changes! I need to make some things to bring joy and color into my life right now, not things like UFO's that feel like chores, so I'm going to figure out some new projects and show you my revised list soon!How was your summer? Did you do some great sewing? Take some nice trips? Spend time with loved ones? I sure hope so! Happy Autumn, quilting friends!Staci